Leaders of The Pack

Once named “the most dangerous woman in America” by the Christian Coalition, Donna Red Wing uses education and grassroots efforts to power her team of organizers at One Iowa, the statewide LGBT advocacy organization. “We are a test case here, a laboratory for the national marriage movement—and the stakes could not be higher,” she says. “What we learn in this place, the lessons and experiences of Iowa, will teach us how to attain and sustain marriage equality in the Heartland, and in, as Eleanor Roosevelt used to say, ‘those places closest to home.’ And that, my friends, is the revolution.” Red Wing has held leadership positions at the Gill Foundation, Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD, and was one of President Obama’s three kitchen cabinet members on LGBT concerns. And she has allies in high places: Along with Sumitra, her partner of 26 years, former presidential candidate Howard Dean ranks among her fans – she was his outreach liaison to the LGBT communities. She was the very first recipient of the Walter Cronkite Award for Faith & Freedom, and served as Chief of Staff at Interfaith Alliance, Cronkite’s organization in Washington, D.C. Want to see her in action? Check out Ballot Measure 9, the Sundance award-winning documentary about Oregon’s 1992 battle over the radical right’s attempt to prohibit anti-discrimination laws.